After US Prosecutors charged the Chairman of Adani Group, Gautam Adani in an alleged bribery and fraud scheme, BJP leader Amit Malviya said on Thursday that the timing of the report, just before the Parliament session and Donald Trump's "Impending" Presidency raises several questions.
Malviya came down hard on the Congress after Jairam Ramesh demanded a JPC investigation into the matter.
"But be as it may, the essence of the charge is that US and Indian companies agreed to supply 12 GW of power to the Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI). This was subject to SECI entering into PPA with State electricity distribution companies (SDCs). There was a collaboration between Adani Green Energy with a US renewable energy, Azure Power, under which Azure was allotted 4 GW and Adani Green Energy 8 MW," Malviya said on X.
He pointed out that all states mentioned in the alleged bribery scandal were those ruled by the opposition.
"Therefore, the Adanis (in collusion with Azure Power; a US firm) paid the equivalent of US $265 million to SDCs based in Odisha (BJD ruled), Tamilnadu (DMK), Chattisgarh (Congress) and Andhra Pradesh (YSRCP) between Jul 21 and Feb 22 (by far the largest to AP)," he added.
"All the States mentioned here were Opposition-ruled during that time. So, before you pontificate, answer on the bribes the Congress and its allies accepted," Amit Malviya added.
The BJP leader also mentioned that an Indian Court can similarly, on legitimate grounds, accuse American firms of bribing US government officials, to deny access to Indian markets.
"Should we then allow the law to take its course and the concerned corporate to defend or plant ourselves in the domestic politics of a foreign country? Don't get needlessly excited. The timing of the report, just before the Parliament session and Donald Trump's impending Presidency raises several questions. That the Congress is willing to be a prop in the hands of George Soros and his cabal speaks volumes," Malviya said on X.
Earlier today, Jairam Ramesh said that it vindicated the demand that the Congress was making for a Joint Parliamentary Committee investigation into the various alleged scams.
Meanwhile, in its first reaction, Adani Green Energy responded by saying that it had decided not to proceed with the proposed USD-denominated bond offerings.
In an exchange filing on Thursday, Adani Green Energy Limited said, "The United States Department of Justice and the United States Securities and Exchange Commission have issued a criminal indictment and brought a civil complaint, respectively, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, against our Board members, Gautam Adani and Sagar Adani. The United States Department of Justice have also included our Board member, Vneet Jaain, in such criminal indictment. In light of these developments, our subsidiaries have presently decided not to proceed with the proposed USD denominated bond offerings."
According to the US Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York, "A five-count criminal indictment was unsealed in federal court charging Gautam Adani, Sagar R. Adani, and Vneet S. Jaain, with conspiracies to commit securities and wire fraud and substantive securities fraud for their roles in a multi-billion-dollar scheme to obtain funds from U.S. investors and global financial institutions on the basis of false and misleading statements."
The indictment also charges Ranjit Gupta and Rupesh Agarwal, former executives of a renewable-energy company with securities that had traded on the New York Stock Exchange (the U.S. Issuer), and Cyril Cabanes, Saurabh Agarwal and Deepak Malhotra, former employees of a Canadian institutional investor, with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in connection with the alleged bribery scheme.
The US Attorney's office says that the charges in the indictment are allegations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. (ANI)
